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Not being a movie review site, this is a little unorthodox, but I just wanted to talk to you guys about Little Miss Sunshine. Probably one of the best movies I have seen in a while, it successfully takes the completely overdone cliche` movie device of the family road trip and turns it into something unique, original and hilarious. Steve Carell is in his element as a morose, depressed Proust scholar and pulls off his lines with excellent delivery. Who really steals the show, however, is the little girl who plays Olive, Abigail Breslin. She is an incredible actress, never once do you get that creepy little-kid-being-trained-by-their-parents-to-act vibe. She is really Olive, the little intelligent optimistic girl who wants nothing more than to be in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.
That's what is so great about this movie, is that no one is fake. You have the stale archetypes, the overbearing dad, the hippy mom, the crude grandpa and the bored teenage brother. But everyone in this movie takes their role and makes it interesting to watch. They mix tragedy and comedy in a way that is so incredibly refreshing to someone like me who absolutely loathes going to movies these days. It's not the generic man-gets-hit-in-balls laughs, and it is never predictable. You see these very real people in very real comic situations and that makes them very relateable. This is everyone's crazy family.
A movie that makes you think is one thing, a movie that makes you cry is another. A movie that is genuinely funny and makes you do both of those things and still delivers the usually cheesy message that being yourself is the best way to go about life is a movie worth watching. Go see it! It's depressing! It's hilarious! It has Steve Carell as a gay man! DO IT.
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posted by Mike on August 28, 2006 7:30 PM in Music
Music Review - Live: The Decemberists “8.23.06”
I’ve got to admit- I was one of them. Depriving myself of The Decemberists for no good reason. Riding the coattails of fellow Northwesterners Death Cab and Modest Mouse, you wonder if their major label signing wasn’t just the product of a current trend. And then of course you come to find out, they’re just five down-to-earth people who craft some of the most interesting ballads out there.
Their live show explained how all the hype was warranted.
Slow, but fitting opener I Was Made for the Stage which bled nicely as a wall of noise into the addictively catchy 16 Military Wives. The entire set felt balanced- easily ebbing from old mainstays to new experiments. The Perfect Crime with its chiming, on-point electric guitar bursts, jubilant encore Mariner’s Revenge Song, and R.E.M influenced “joint suicide” story We Both Go Down Together highlighted a set with amazing variety and flowing continuity.
Admittedly rusty, this was the band’s first show in 2 months, but they approached the layoff with grace. Asking for front row help to remember lyrics. Reading illegible banners in the crowd. Stopping to eat a birthday cookie for the drummer. Cute, very cute.
The new album leak piqued my interest, but the show sold me. Of course, Frodo had to burn me their whole catalogue. *sigh* How the hell am I going to listen to anything else for the next month?
posted by Mike on August 28, 2006 7:24 PM in Music
Geeky Music Review: The Flaming Lips “At War with the Mystics”
Everyone’s favorite music-making psychos from Mars, have a recent release. Like a Radio Flyer being towed by a Tank, At War with the Mystics can’t hope to match the necessity of its predecessors Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi. But obviously, Wayne Coyne and Co. have just as much fun jumping around like kids in the wagon as they do blowing things up in the armored vehicle.
Guitarist/Drummer Steven Drozd kicking his drug habit seems like the prime reason this record’s so relatively optimistic for them. Songs like The Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song (With all Your Power), W.A.N.D., and Haven’t Got a Clue confirm their collective upbeat-ness.
Hilarity that’s commonplace in their stage act doesn’t usually translate well in their recordings. But its front-‘n’-center in Mystics. Lines like “I still can’t believe all your plastic surgery/Now it’s everybody’s problem that you’re unhappy” make you smile, and the apologetic character acquiescing to “Britney” and “Gwen” in The Sound of Failure furthers the witty charm.
Somber numbers Mr. Ambulance Driver and Vein of Stars never live up to the legend of past glories like Do You Realize??, but you never get the sense that they were intended to. With all the giddiness in this record, it’s easy to miss the real joy of it- The Flaming Lips are truly self-aware, and they’re not lazily duplicating their past successes.
I just wanted to take this time to "rekuhnize" some friends over at the Penny Arcade Forums who helped make my PAX trip possible. Current disposable income is practically nil at the moment and so now I will "give props" to some cool dudes who helped out with transportation, lodging, and sustenance for the exposition.
In no particular order, thank you to:
Rankenphile, for letting me crash in your room Friday and Saturday nights and for two breakfasts and a dinner.
Romacus, for letting me hitch a ride over the mountains
Monkeybomb, for letting me crash in your room Thursday night and for a dinner with the forum crew at Rock Bottom.
posted by Chris on August 27, 2006 6:55 PM in Podcast
After last week's craziness comes this week's calm. This week, The Geek, Frodo and White Mage welcome guest panelist Fronz from Destructoid.com.The Geek is fresh off of a PAX binge and tells us all about it, from the Minibosses to throwing a dart at Tycho's baby's head. Fun times, man. Fun times. Other things were also discussed! Such as...
posted by Chris on August 24, 2006 10:17 PM in Rant
What's wrong with your game, ABC? Lost fans are getting pissed. About CANDY. Tonight was a complete sham. Microsoft really needs to discuss how to conduct a proper Alternate Reality Game with ABC, because ABC just does not have their act together. Some of you fellow geeks out there who are Lost fans may be aware that they are currently doing a Lost alternate reality game involving a vast network of video snippets, websites (such as apollocandy.com and whereisalvar.com) and crazy ladies interrupting comic conventions. There is a crazy amount of things involved, and if you'd like to read up on it (it's actually quite interesting) you can do so here. I won't explain it, or I am liable to get exhausted.
The other day the character of Rachael Blake sent me an email about the website for Apollo Candy. Savvy Lost fans will recognize the candy bar from the show, and if you peek about the website you see they are doing a promotion where they are giving out free candy bars. Today there was one in the Seattle area, so my wife and I hopped right out there. The instructions were vague, they just said to go to "Merrymoor" park in Seattle at 7:30. For one thing, there is no "Merrymoor" park. There is a "Marymoor" park, but it's not in Seattle, it's in Redmond. We went anyway, confident that they were just trying to throw us off the track.
posted by Chris on August 24, 2006 10:58 AM in Rant
Now, anyone who has read this site, listened to the podcast or has a fully functional cognitive center of their brain knows that I am a huge Nintendo fan. I genuinely believe that Nintendo consistantly produces the best quality first party games, and they are the company I always turn to first when I want to have video game related fun. If it were socially acceptable to wear green tights, I wouldn't be made fun of day in and day out for my fashion sense. Something has been cinching up my tights recently, and I wanted to share it with you in rant form. Nintendo is being retarded.
According to Matt Cassamassina from IGN the other day, there were rumors that Nintendo was going to announce a version of Kid Icarus for the Wii - Link.
The day came and went, and no announcement was made. Now, we all know that Nintendo is making a Kid Icarus game for the Wii. The be-winged Pit is in Smash Brothers Brawl, and Nintendo is always more than happy to continue franchises. People eat up new Mario, Zelda and Metroid games, so why not capitalize on that? They are in the business of making money, after all. I know I am going to be first in line to get the Wii, Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3 on release day. So why am I angry? Because of the pandering. I HATE BEING PANDERED TO.
As a child of the 80's, I feel my nostalgia is being exploited a wee bit too heavily these days. Sure, as a kid I loved watching Transformers and Ninja Turtles on TV while wearing my Super Mario 3 Underoos (they had sparkles!), and I am sure I would get a couple warm fuzzies from seeing a live action version of Optimus Prime rolling down the street. But from the Transformers movie being made by Michael "Explosions Give Me Erections" Bay, to the new CG Ninja Turtles that look like a cutscene from a PS1 game, to Hot Topic video game tees with stupid slogans on them to Family Guy disintegrating into a series of obscure 80's references, people have figured out that this kind of thing makes money. Gobs of money. Hats made of money. And we eat it up as if it were Mario shaped candy (which is probably delicious, by the way).
Nintendo is great at making original games, especially recently. Off the top of my head I can cite Pikmin, Nintendogs, and Drill Dozer. There are a couple of excellent new games for the Wii announced, like Project H.A.M.M.E.R., Elebits and the like. But Nintendo keeps bringing back franchises. Is this a bad thing? More often than not, I say yes.
The Metroid Prime series was really successful, so has been the Zelda series. But what about Star Fox? Once Nintendo let other companies grasp their beloved Furry Franchise, it went to crap. Mario Party is another franchise that just needs to die. Look at other companies, like Capcom and the Mega Man series. What the crap happened there?! Capitalizing on nostalgia is an easy way to get people to buy games. Us 80's kids will just look at a remake based on something we remember waking up early Saturday mornings to play and drool, slap down our money, and eventually be disappointed the majority of the time.
Nintendo could do a lot with the Kid Icarus franchise, sure. It could end up being a brilliant, mindblowing game, revitalizing the franchise much like Capcom did with Resident Evil 4. Or, it could also suck as hard as Star Fox Assault (ouch!). The development time being spent to make a crappy franchise game could be spent making a truly inspired new game that doesn't give us the nostalgia warm fuzzies, but gives us satisfaction in a wholly new way, like how new and fresh rolling stuff into a ball felt in Katamari, like how crazy fun shredding on a playskool guitar to Ziggy Stardust is in Guitar Hero. The Wii is inspiring game developers all over the world to think about games in a new way, and Nintendo is banking on old franchises? That just shows a lack of faith in their product to me.
What I am saying is that the Wii has a lot of potential. There is the potential for success, and potential for failure. I don't think that Nintendo should rely so much on rehashes of franchises using the Wii controller. Make something incredible and new, and quit banking on my childhood. That's the easy way out. I'll buy it, but I won't be happy about it.
posted by Chris on August 20, 2006 6:10 PM in Podcast
This week we welcome guest panelist Eliza Gauger from Kotaku.com. She joins The Geek, White Mage and Frodo in discussing internet flash mobs, hard gay, the Penny Arcade Expo, and Bully. A fun time was had by all. And cursing. Lots of cursing was had by all.
Here are some show notes:
I wish to introduce to you the new and improved Weekly Geek site. Feel free to kick the tires, comment on some entries, visit the forum, check out the store or even check out our new and improved archive system. There's still a few bugs around, but it is certainly an improvement from the last design! If there are any glaring bugs, please let me know at frodo@weeklygeekshow.com.
It's a long time coming but we finally look like a respectable web site. Don't miss this week's podcast, it's going to be HUGE.
posted by Chris on August 14, 2006 6:44 AM in Podcast
#532: Extreme Gardening
This week The Geek and Frodo welcome special guest Rikki Simons, and proceed to discuss garden trowels, MMORPGs, the strangeness of Second Life, Penny Arcade Expo, Xbox live, Sony blunders and they only make ONE Wii joke. We apologize. Here are some show notes:
posted by Chris on August 11, 2006 8:59 AM in Podcast
In 2004 (or was it 2005?) The Geek and Frodo interviewed Porkfry from Penny Arcade fame. Along with being a full-time badass, Porkfry is a game tester, and gives the rundown on how to get into the game industry, and what sort of horrors await you once you get there. Kids throwing rocks at each other was also a topic of discussion.
I experienced a couple of technical difficulties this weekend and had to replace the hard drive on my laptop, so The Weekly Geek podcast for this week is going to be a little late. Do not despair! We have a couple of new interviews up on the podcast feed, so go check those out and get out of my hair!
I wish to direct your attention to the fabulous Glue Gun Crafts site where I wrote an article about using your glue gun to make something awesome. In the interest of full disclosure, I work for the company who made this site. Also I coded out the site. Go me!
posted by Chris on August 3, 2006 10:10 AM in Podcast
In 2004, The Geek and Frodo watched a brilliant man peddle his comic book Robots R' Cool, Zombies R' Jerks in the special features of Comic Book: The Movie. That man was Devin T. Quin, and he was basically begging to be interviewed by The Weekly Geek. This is that interview. Enjoy.
This was the most incredible ComiCon I'd ever been to. I've been going every year since 1994, first as an artist looking for a publisher, then as a publisher myself, and finally as a pop culture journalist. I have a really long writeup online, but here's a condensed overview. Wednesday I went to Preview Night, then saw an animated French film called "Renaissance." Thursday I went to panels for Marvel's Civil War and Rosario Dawson. That night I went to the Hasbro Vault Party. Friday I went to the Heroes panel and press conference, and the Hellboy Animated panel. That afternoon I watched Billy Tan, John Romita Jr., and John Romita Sr. paint superheroes on the wall of a fancy restaurant called Palms. Saturday I went to the Sony Online Entertainment Block Party and watched the "Teen Titans" movie. If you're interested in reading more about my adventure, click here.
Guys, now that E3 is gonna be pretty much exclusive to retailers and large media outlets, it looks like the Penny Arcade Expo is poised to be the next big gamer convention.
PAX 06 is coming up at the end of this month and registration ends this Thursday, August 3, so make sure you get in and register.
The Weekly Geek is done on a zero budget, with no funding other than ads and merch. Help support the site with a donation! Consider it like tipping your waiter. We also give gifts for larger donations.
Music Review - Live: The Decemberists “8.23.06”
Geeky Music Review: The Flaming Lips “At War with the Mystics”
